When arguing with proponents of gay marriage, many Christians claim, "If we allow gays to marry, we must then permit all kinds of crazy weddings. A man can marry forty women, his pet goat, a doorknob, or a perky blonde blow up doll he's nicknamed 'Hootie' because Only Wanna Be With You was playing during their first intimate encounter. No more asking fellow wedding invitees 'Are you a friend of the bride or groom?' We must begin asking, 'Are you a friend of the groom or were you involved in the production of the rubber that now constitutes the bride's buttocks?'" Then the gay marriage antagonist smiles and nods as if he or she has just presented an argument so persuasive that gay marriage backers in every corner of the country somehow sense their cause is rapidly crumbling.
If they're going to argue that legalizing gay marriage would open the floodgates to all kinds of oddball weddings, I'll retort by suggesting we needn't cease progression, rather we should regress, i.e., the government should immediately stop recognizing opposite-sex marriages. Of course Uncle Sam couldn't prevent persons from carrying out private ceremonies of a religious nature, but having a preacher preside over your wedding wouldn't earn you a single tax break because the IRS will consider everyone single for, "as long as they alone shall live."
Why do conservatives, who say that marriage is not a right, have the right to marry someone with opposing genitalia? Before opposite-sex marriage became legal, a heterosexual marriage opponent could have easily said, "Once we allow men and women to marry, we'll have to let homosexuals marry, then we'll have to grant licenses to men who've fallen in love with their snow blower because they find a little danger keeps romance interesting."
I'm not a big marcher, but would proudly walk up and down many blocks in an attempt to make null and void heterosexual marriage. Boy would I love to tell gay-marriage-opposing-religious-heterosexual-newlyweds that they're now just shacking up.
"Sorry," I would say to what we formerly considered, "the wife," faking sincerity. "But since you reside in the same dwelling it's not like you'll be forced to recreate the 'walk of shame' you made famous during your college years under the guise you were trying to find yourself."
Two people have the desire to get married. It's okay if one is a man and the other is a woman. It's not okay if one is a man and the other is a man.
Why?
Religion.
If the Bible said, "A man is encouraged to lie with a man as he lies with a woman," gay marriage would be legal in the United States.
Because the Bible declares such action a sin, gay marriage is outlawed in our great but still flawed country.
That is not honoring the separation of church and state.
It's as black and white as the pages inside Bibles perused by most lawmakers before they draft legislation that impacts everyone.
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